The present invention relates to a disposable diaper.
Disposable diapers are well known, in which a pair of cuffs longitudinally extend on the inner surface of the diaper along the transversely opposite sides thereof across front and rear sections as well as a crotch section and normally tend to be risen on the inner surface and in order to prevent body fluids from leaking laterally of the diaper.
FIG. 5 in the accompanying drawings is a plan view exemplarily showing such a known disposable diaper as partially broken away. The diaper 1 has a basic body 5 comprising a liquid-permeable topsheet 2, a liquid-impermeable backsheet 3 and an hourglass-shaped liquid-absorbent core 4 sandwiched between these two sheets 2, 3 so as to form a front section 6, a rear section 7 and a crotch section 8 interposed between these two sections 6, 7 longitudinally of the diaper 1. A pair of cuffs 10 longitudinally extend along transversely opposite sides of the basic body 5 across the front and rear sections 6, 7 as well as the crotch section 8 so that these cuffs 10 may bear against the wearer's crotch as the diaper 1 is worn. Additionally, the basic body 5 is provided with elastic members (first elastic members) 11 extending along transversely opposite side edges thereof and bonded in their stretched states to the inner surface of the backsheet 3 for fitness around the respective legs of the user. A pair of tape fasteners 12 outwardly extend from transversely opposite side edges of the rear section 7. Each of the cuffs 10 comprises a rectangular strip of sheet having a width W except its margin for bonding. The cuff 10 has an inner side edge 15 which is a free edge and to which an elastic member (second elastic member) 16 is bonded in its longitudinally stretched state, and an outer side edge 17 extending in parallel to the inner side edge 15. The outer side edge 17 and longitudinally opposite ends 18, 19 of the cuff 10 are bonded to the inner surface of the diaper's basic body 5. With such diaper 1 being worn, the cuff 10 is biased under the contraction of the second elastic member 16 to be risen on the topsheet 2 and to form together with the topsheet 2 a pocket (not shown) opening inwardly of the diaper 1. The cuff 10 forms a barrier which has a height corresponding to the width W and serves against excretion leakage as the cuff 10 is risen substantially in the vertical direction in the crotch zone 8. Such diaper 1 is disclosed, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 4,695,278.
Slip down of the diaper worn may often cause a gap to be formed between the diaper and the user's crotch, possibly leading to excretion leakage. Certainly, it will be possible to avoid such excretion leakage if the cuffs form sufficiently high barriers when they are risen. To achieve this with the above-mentioned known diaper, the width W may be dimensioned to be correspondingly large. However, the larger the width W is, the larger the extent of the topsheet may be covered by the cuffs and the smaller the area of the topsheet effective for excretion-permeation may be. Thus the lateral leakage of excretion will be rather apt to occur.
In view of the problems as mentioned above, it is a principal object of the invention to provide an improved arrangement of the cuffs, in which each cuff extending outward is folded back inwardly of a diaper along a transversely middle line of the cuff at least in a crotch section of the diaper so that the desired absorbing function of the diaper may be assured even if the width of each cuff is dimensioned to be relatively large.